Here's a very surprising fact! It surprised me, anyway, and led to this prompt. According to Wikipedia:

In its original meaning, the word martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible.[1] The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness . . . .

Your Challenge: Perhaps you have witnessed or experienced witness that needs a poem? Write a new poem for this prompt, letting the tone of the poem reveal your positive or negative feelings about martyrdom and/or witness.

I get a regular magazine called voice of the martyrs. The media does not like to cover stories about people who are dying for their beliefs. This was a challenge indeed. I wrote one direction and then went another.

Hello Susan, friends! This is great theme I did already ponder about in my Tarot dedicated poem: http://humbirdstar.blogspot.com/2016/02/preface.html. Today it is more the collaboration with a music and glory which we can find, when trying to embrace the both sides of us...

Enjoyed this prompt.Wrote from the witness perspective. Martyrs conjured up memories of suicide bombers ore Lives of Catholic saints stories,Martyrs being boiled in oil, eaten by lions or being slowly burnt to torch light Nero's dinner parties. Not feeling quite up to writing about this , I took another path....

This is such an extensive prompt. I did enjoy the challenge, and in my research was reminded that martyrs are not always those who loose their lives but the suffers and the witnesses also the issues of consensus and admiration, come into play.

" a person who suffers very much or is killed because of their religious or political ​beliefs, and is often ​admired because of it[ Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary Online]

If you have a poetry blog and have been ACTIVE by posting (and responding to others) on Poetry Pantry, or Verse First (and linking back to us) and wish to be added to this blogroll then click the link below so we can take a look at your blog......